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This guide takes an in-depth look at how to play Soldier: 76 in Overwatch.
We look at the strengths and weaknesses of the hero, and we go over
mechanics, recommended strategies, and things to beware of.

The guide has been written based on our extensive experience playing the
game since before the Closed Beta began, and it relies on our decades-long
FPS experience. That said, our aim is to keep the guide relatively brief and
easy to understand, making it accessible to veterans and new players alike.

If you have any comment on the guide's content or structure, please let
us know in the comments! :)

Stamp of Approval

This guide has been reviewed and approved by michr, formerly one of the best Day of Defeat
players in Europe, who now plays Overwatch for OWKings. He also writes for
Gosu Gamers.

1. Strengths

Provides good, sustained damage at almost all ranges (weakest at very
long range)

Can heal himself and allies with Biotic Field, granting
sustainability

Sprint allows him to run back quickly after dying and also to reposition
and sometimes escape during combat

Easy-to-use ultimate that is very effective against fragile
(non-tank) heroes

Viable both on Attack and Defense

2. Weaknesses

High skill cap

Ultimate ability has a prominent audio warning making it easy for
enemies to avoid it

3. Strategy

In this section, we will briefly go over the main strategies you should
employ as Soldier: 76. We will begin with an Overview, and then we will go in
depth more about each ability that Soldier: 76 has.

3.1. Overview

Soldier: 76 is an offense hero that is at his finest doing constant
damage from his team's front line. Any seconds spent trying to maneuver around
the enemy team are wasted, with some situational exceptions (such as moving
around to get a great angle for your ultimate).

Soldier: 76's entire kit is built around this idea. His rifle's flexibility
allows him to have high uptime on dealing damage (as opposed to heroes such as
Reaper or Widowmaker, who will often spend long amounts of time
not attacking), and his damage is actually viable at most ranges. This means
that you should make use of the advantage your rifle offers, and put down
near-constant fire towards the enemy team.

His Biotic Field heal helps him stay in the fight longer (healing
himself and allies as needed, ideally under some form of cover), while his
Sprint is often used to get back into the action as quickly as possible after
dying or retreating; it also helps with getting to cover quicker, or dashing
for a health pack.

That said, while Soldier: 76 can effectively deal damage at most ranges, he
really excels at medium range. In close range, he will practically always lose
against McCree (chiefly due to the McCree's Flashbang), and at
best he has no real advantage over heroes like Tracer, Genji,
or Reaper. At long range, Solider: 76 is also at a disadvantage against
snipers (Widowmaker/Hanzo) and Bastion.

3.2. Abilities

3.2.1. Heavy Pulse Rifle (Weapon)

Heavy Pulse Rifle(LMB)Soldier: 76

Automatic assault weapon

While not strictly an ability, we feel that it is important to talk about
Soldier: 76's rifle. That is because it is practically the only weapon in the
game which has complex usage (simply holding down the fire button is not
optimal), and it is also core to Soldier: 76's gameplay.

Soldier: 76 uses a rifle with a 25-bullet clip size, which is effective at
most ranges. Spraying at close and medium range (provided that the player
can aim the crosshair correctly) is extremely efficient and will result in
tremendous amounts of damage. At longer ranges, firing in bursts of a few
bullets or tapping (firing shots in quick succession as with a
pistol) is recommended as the first bullets of a burst always have pinpoint
accuracy.

The importance of good aim with Soldier: 76 cannot be understated. You
will have to practice and attempt to land as many headshots as possible.

While the rifle deal quite high damage, the damage value does drop off as
range increases, meaning that he is at a significant disadvantage trying to
duel against a distant Widowmaker. This does not mean, however, that it
is necessarily useless to engage in such a duel. Widowmakers tend to change
position when they have been exposed (especially when taking fire), so there
may be a benefit to simply firing off a few shots in her direction (and given
Soldier: 76's perfect accuracy when firing one shot at a time, hitting her is
not difficult).

There is no disadvantage to moving or strafing while firing, as Soldier: 76,
and doing so will make you a harder target to hit. While this is not at all
uncommon for Overwatch, players who are used to other shooters (such as
Counter-Strike) should keep this in mind, especially with a hero such as
Solder: 76.

3.2.2. Helix Rockets

Helix Rockets(RMB)Soldier: 76

Cooldown: 8 seconds

Launch of volley of explosive rockets.

Soldier: 76's alternate fire shoots a volley of rockets, which has an
8-second cooldown. The rockets deal high damage (120), and have no damage
drop-off at range. Moreover, as rockets typically do, they deals splash damage.
The rockets are projectiles that have travel time; they can therefore
theoretically be dodged, but they move quickly, making this quite a rare
occurrence. Finally, unlike projectiles such as Hanzo's arrows or
Torbjörn's bullets, the rockets will always fly in a straight line,
never dropping off, no matter the distance.

Helix Rockets is an outstanding source of damage for Soldier: 76, and
you should look to use it as often as possible. There is rarely a reason not to
do so.

While you are in the middle of a spray with with your rifle, firing Helix
Rockets will pause your primary fire for a short amount of time; that said,
since the rockets deal far higher damage than your bullets do, this is
typically not a problem (it only hurts you if the rockets miss where the
bullets would have hit).

Helix Rockets is obviously strongest when its splash damage can hit multiple
targets, so these situations make it ideal to use. It is also very strong
against stationary targets who have no chance of avoiding them, like Torbjorn's
Turret or Bastion.

We would also like to mention that against Genji's Deflect
ability, you should fire the Helix Rockets at the ground/Genji's feet as
opposed to trying to target him directly. The splash damage will hit him, and
he cannot Deflect the rockets (potentially back at you).

3.2.3. Sprint

Sprint(LShift)Soldier: 76

Run faster while moving forward

Sprint is Soldier: 76's only movement ability/escape mechanism.
While it does not allow him to move unpredictably or get out of
movement-impairing abilities (like traps or Zarya's
Graviton Surge), it can still be a very valuable tool for repositioning
during combat and avoiding damage.

Indeed, as far as combat maneuverability, Sprint can be great to quickly
dash to cover when faced with abilities such as the ultimates of
McCree, Hanzo, Mei, or even another Soldier: 76. It
allows you to make a dash towards a much-needed health pack, towards your
healer, or behind your team's shields.

Outside of combat, as stated above, Sprint is extremely useful in getting
back into the action right away after dying or falling back to recover
health.

Note that while Sprint is activated, all you can do is run forward or
diagonally (as soon as you let go of your forward key, Sprint is toggled off
and must be re-enabled) and jump. You cannot shoot or reload, you cannot stop,
and you cannot go backwards.

3.2.4. Biotic Field

Biotic Field(E)Soldier: 76

Cooldown: 15 seconds

Deploy a field that heals you and your allies.

Biotic Field is an AoE heal that lasts for 5 seconds (with a
15-second cooldown). Soldier: 76 places a marker on the ground, and any allies
(including Soldier: 76) who are in line of sight of it and within a certain
radius of it gain 35 health per second. While this may not sound like much when
compared to the sort of sustained healing that Lúcio, Mercy, or
Zenyatta can do, it can often make the difference between your team
being able to hold the line long enough to capture an objective or be
reinforced and dying or having to fall back.

You should not use this ability on cooldown, and instead wait for the right
time and place. It does not last very long, so using it preemptively is rarely
a good idea (the exception being if you know for sure that damage will come,
such as if Mei's Blizzard has just been cast and you cannot
escape it); you have to make sure that its healing will count.

As far as positioning is concerned, it is best to place your field somewhere
where you and your allies can be healed and still take cover at the same time.
A classic example of this is placing it at corners, so that players can choose
to take cover around the corner and heal up, or peek around the corner while
still benefiting from the Biotic Field.

It is also worth noting that Biotic Field places a small object the ground,
which is what creates the field in a radius around it. This is placed at the
location of your character in the moment when you use the ability, which is
useful to know when Payloads are involved; you want to place the field
on the Payload, so that the radius moves with it, instead of on the
ground so that it gets left behind.

3.2.5. Tactical Visor

Tactical Visor(Q)Soldier: 76

Ultimate

Automatically aims your weapon at targets in view.

Tactical Visor grants Soldier: 76 auto-aim for 6 seconds. He will
land every shot with perfect accuracy on the target that is closest to his
crosshair while this ability is active. As far as its acquisition range is
concerned, it covers the entire area of your screen, meaning that if the only
target is on the far end of your screen compared to your crosshair, you will
still hit it. Also, activating Tactical Visor instantly reloads your weapon,
and your reload time during Tactical Visor is reduced to 0.5 seconds (for 1
second).

Tactical Visor is the reason why most players learn to fear Soldier: 76
early on. Despite seeming like a very easy and straightforward ability to use,
things are not quite as simple.

To begin with, the enemy team hears an audio warning when you cast this
ability ("I've got you in my sights"), which serves to alert everyone that you
have activated your ultimate. Moreover, for the entire duration of Tactical
Visor, the enemy team hears a very distinctive sound that indicates that the
ability is still active. This means that it is very unlikely that anyone who
has had a chance to get to cover will make the mistake of coming out again
before your ability has ended.

Additionally, despite having auto-aim, you can only shoot at one target at
a given time, meaning that it is possible to effectively have your ultimate
"wasted" by focusing fire on a tank as opposed on the fragile offense heroes
that you could actually kill. Moreover, all your shots are still blockable by
things like shields and barriers. Finally, keep in mind that Tactical Visor
only acquires heroes, and will not automatically hit Torbjörn or
Symmetra's
Sentry Turrets, Widowmaker's Venom Mine, or
Junkrat's traps.

With all of this in mind, here are our suggestions and tips for using
Tactical Visor.

Do not expect to be able to activate Tactical Visor and simply face the
entire enemy team successfully. If you do not die immediately, the enemy
team will likely take cover, or block your shots using Reinhardt's or
Winston's shields.

Try to make use of Tactical Visor when the enemy team is already distracted
by your teammates' abilities. It is ideally paired with other strong ultimates
such as Reinhardt's Earthshatter or Zarya's
Graviton Surge, but any major distraction will work.

Choose your angle of attack carefully. You should try to flank the enemy
team in such a way as to reduce their opportunities to take cover to a
minimum, while not putting yourself in grave danger.

While Tactical Visor is active, do not simply give up on positioning your
crosshair due to the auto-aiming element. Instead, moving it close to or on top
of your priority targets (low-health offense or support heroes) and away from
tanks or shields. Also, watch out for Genji's Deflect, which
can easily get you killed at this time.

4. ChangeLog

+ show all entries- show only 10 entries

22 May 2016: Updated the guide following michr's review.

Removed a Weakness that stated Soldier: 76 is outmatched at various ranges by individual heroes.